“But I also realize that winning doesn't always mean getting first place; it means getting the best out of yourself.” ― Meb Keflezighi

Chicago training week 1 & 2

2 weeks update because, well, travel. Travelling up to New York was both fun and exhausting but the girls made some great memories with family and I’m glad we had the opportunity to go up there. I got to celebrate my friend Christi on her upcoming wedding and shower my sister with love for the newest baby girl on the way.

Week 1 of training was really hard because I was in New York without my husband to help with the kids when I needed to run. Thankfully I’m truly blessed with a family who supports all of my endeavors and took turns watching the girls so that I could get in every workout in the training plan. Let’s take a look!

Monday: Rest day/Cross training – I’m not sure how I feel about Monday’s being for cross training but it works out well when I’m home because that’s my yoga day. Since I was in New York I did a leg workout for about 45 minutes.

Tuesday: 7.2 miles – The workout called for 2 mile warm up, 4 miles at 15k to half marathon pace tempo, 2 mile cool down. I hit all of my tempo miles pace right on the dot but I had to cut my cool down a little bit due to some digestive issues. (Don’t eat pizza right before you go to run speed work) My cousin and my mother graciously watched the girls at a playground while I got in my run.

Wednesday: Leg workout

Thursday: 9 miles – I took this workout to the hills of upstate New York. Being in Charleston, the only way for me to get hill work in is to go run the bridge which with driving time tacks on an extra hour to my workout. Having kids makes it hard to justify that drive to run when I can easily run 9 miles around my neighborhood. Thankfully where my inlaws live, it’s hilly as hell. My wonderful mother in law took a half day from work and met me at her house to watch the girls while I got my run in. I’m sure the cooler temps and less humidity helped but my pace for this run was great and actually didn’t feel as hard as that pace feels here in Charleston.

Friday: Cross training- My inlaws have nice bikes and I took one out for a 5 mile ride. I don’t ride that often and I knew trying to do more would inevitably lead to having some sore areas, so I kept it simple. I rode my bike down to where my husband and I got married, sent him a sweet picture and headed back.

Saturday: 4.4 miles- Recovery run. The training plan bases what “Recovery” is based on heart rate. I tried to keep my miles as easy as possible. There was a cute turtle I ran by that was near the road. I stopped for a picture and continued on. When I turned back I saw the turtle was actually trying to get across the road very slowly so I picked him up and gave him a fast ride to safety.

Sunday: 12 miles- Long Run Sunday this week was just a simple easy 12 miles. (Every couple weeks includes marathon pace miles during the long run, yuck) Sunday was my sisters baby shower that myself & my best friend threw her. Since we needed to be up early to set up for the shower, I held off my long run until the evening when the sun was setting. I had put both of the girls to bed at my sisters but of course Fiona was being a butt about bed time. Thankfully my sister was kind enough to deal with her so I could go run before it got too dark. I headed out in the back roads of Upstate New York. I was accompanied by beautiful old farms, cows staring at me from the side of the road, horses, and even some yummy skunk roadkill. I kept the pace easy because I knew that the following weeks long run was going to be more hard especially because I’d be back in Charleston for it.

Total: 33 miles

Week 2– This week had some hiccups because I was traveling the 14 hour drive (which with two kids takes closer to 17 hours) back to Charleston. We ended up stopping in Virginia and getting a hotel for the night because it was just safer than me trying to drive through the night by myself. This caused me to have to shift around a few of the workouts.

Monday: Rest/Cross training- I used this as a rest day and instead enjoyed the day with my sister and niece. We took the girls to the Strong Museum of Play which is huge. It has everything you could ever imagine for kids to play. Truly it puts the Charleston and the Columbia Children’s museums to shame. Later after the kids were in bed Daniela came over and the three amigos spent the evening talking and laughing until we were crying.

Tuesday: Travel day. I headed out around noon after getting packed up and saying goodbye to everyone. The girls and I drove until about 7 pm when we stopped for dinner and a hotel room for the evening in Virginia.

Wednesday: Travel day part 2: The girls and I got up and had breakfast before hitting the road around 8am. We still had about 7 hours of drive time (10 hours total time) ahead of us. We ended up getting into Charleston about 5pm and I was just completely exhausted. I had nothing left in me to do anything but lay on the couch and cry a little to my husband about how exhausted I was. I truly had hit that point where I was constantly on the verge of tears. Travelling with two kids under 4 for two weeks alone has to be one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I’m a person who struggles hard with patience and not getting overwhelmed, so this was a true test for me.

Thursday: 8 miles total with speed of 8 x 100m strides. I’ve honestly never done strides before so this was all new to me and I had to go look it up. I spaced my 100m strides within each mile. It helped make the miles go by faster as I had a large dose of reality that I was back in Charleston. It was hot, it was humid, and it was a struggle to keep my pace up to where it was in New York. I tried a new pickle pop that I got in a running box as recovery… I’d rather just eat a jar of pickles to be honest. It was weird.

Friday: 4.8 miles – Recovery miles. I kept it slow and easy, also because it was so gosh darn hot out! BLAH. I’ll happily take the New York weather so much right now. Also, I totally cut this run .2 miles short because there was pizza waiting for me at home. Running < Food.

Friday was also the 2 year anniversary of my grandfathers passing. My grandfather was a huge part of my life and I literally saw him every single day of my life growing up. I miss him so very much and decided to honor him, I’d take the girls to Lowes so we could create our own little flower pot. My grandfather was ALWAYS in his garden or making something in his wood working shop to go out in his garden. So we potted a few different flowers and now we can remember him every time we go outside to water the flowers.

Saturday: 8 ish miles. I slept in on Saturday in order to make up for all the sleep I lost on our trip. Then I headed to Cinnebarre with my friends to see the hilarious comedy, “Rough Night.” I love Cinnebarre and their new menu is awesome. I got myself a yummy beer & some soft pretzels for the movie. Afterwards we headed out to The Shelter for some bloody mary’s and time to catch up since I’ve been gone for so long. When I got home it was time for me to get my run in. All of that food and drinks on my stomach made for a craptastic run. But I got it done, even if the pace was awful.

Sunday: Fathers day- Rest day. My plan had some mileage on there and I skipped it, not intentionally but it happened. I got up early with the girls so that my husband could sleep in. We went to brunch at Triangle Char & Bar in Summerville, one of our favorite places because its 2 miles from our house and the food is delicious. Of course I had my favorite bloody Mary and an egg scramble with tons of vegetables and hash browns. After that we made a stop at Lowes so that I could work on our front yard. I haven’t done anything to our yard in the 6 years we have lived in this house. I’m not a gardener, I’m not a very “handy girl.” I’m much better at calling someone to come do things and paying them for their services. I’ve realized I’m the slacker of our cul-de-sac and I should work harder on our yard so it looks as good as our neighbors. Or at least try to look as good as theirs. So I spent hours outside doing some gardening while the girls napped and played.

After that we went over to our neighbors for a dip in the pool. We have some amazing neighbors that we love hanging out with. We had some swim time accompanied by some cold beers. Once done swimming we headed home for dinner. After all that, I had way too much greasy food and beer in my tummy to run so I postponed it till Monday morning. (Spoiler alert, I didn’t get it in on Monday either.) I’m not concerned though. It was 1 run and it really isn’t a big deal this far out from the marathon. I promise not to make a habit of that though.